Latest United Nations News

Big jump in migrants crossing Panama's dangerous Darien Gap

Mar. 22, 2023 20:32 PM EDT

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s government said Wednesday that 50,000 migrants crossed the treacherous Darien Gap linking Colombia and Panama in the first two months of 2023, five times more than in the same period last year. For 2022 as a whole, a total of 250,000 migrants made the...

Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions

Mar. 22, 2023 20:31 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians and Israel clashed over the future intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far right-wing government at a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday, with the Palestinian U.N. ambassador pointing to an Israeli minister’s statement “denying our...

Yemen: Fighting kills 16, endangering peace efforts

Mar. 22, 2023 16:27 PM EDT

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Renewed fighting has erupted in central Yemen, killing at least 16 forces, security and health officials said Wednesday. The flare-up of violence comes after diplomats and leaders expressed new hope for peace efforts in the war-torn country in the days leading...

'Deeply troubling': UN rights chief on Uganda anti-gay bill

Mar. 22, 2023 15:33 PM EDT

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to block an anti-LGBTQ bill that prescribes harsh penalties for some homosexual offenses, including death and life imprisonment. “The passing of this discriminatory bill...

UN chief urges 'game-changing' commitments on clean water

Mar. 22, 2023 14:32 PM EDT

UNITED NATION (AP) — The United Nations chief urged the first world conference on water in over 45 years on Wednesday to address the “21st century emergency” that is wasting the world’s most important resource and has left billions of people without clean water and basic sanitation. ...

A quarter of world population lacks safe drinking water: UN

Mar. 22, 2023 14:22 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A report issued on the eve of the first major U.N. conference on water in over 45 years says 26% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water and 46% lacks access to basic sanitation. The U.N. World Water Development Report 2023,...

AP PHOTOS: World's water in focus as clean supplies squeezed

Mar. 22, 2023 08:13 AM EDT

It's one of the world's most vital resources. In Paraguay, a man displaced by a rising river hauls heavy buckets of it to his temporary home. In the Philippines, a girl uses a manual pump to get just enough to wash. In Haiti children fill large jugs of it in dwindling ravines. Water...

UN: Many African children at risk from lack of clean water

Mar. 22, 2023 08:01 AM EDT

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — In Nigeria's teeming city of Lagos, children in the Makoko area swim and play in filthy water surrounded by garbage. In Ivory Coast's largest city, Abidjan, thousands of families must fetch water from streams for their daily needs. In...

UN chief's call for ambition on climate gets muted response

Mar. 21, 2023 12:31 PM EDT

BERLIN (AP) — Senior government officials at a climate meeting in Copenhagen gave a muted response Tuesday to calls from the head of the United Nations for countries to show greater ambition when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary-General António...

UN: Fresh gang violence in Haiti leaves 187 dead in 11 days

Mar. 21, 2023 11:43 AM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — New clashes between gangs in Haiti’s capital and beyond have killed at least 187 people in less than two weeks and injured more than 150 others, the U.N. said Tuesday. The fresh wave of violence recorded from Feb. 27 to March 9 in the capital,...